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YouTube atheist JaclynGlenn has just recently released a video of her commenting on the recent shooting of a gay club in Orlando by Omar Mateen, as well as the responses given by a couple of pastors who were actually praising such an event.1 Now, in this video it’s clear that she’s really down and upset about everything that’s happened, and it’s also clear that she’s not trying to spread any more hate. Because of that, I’m going to give her a bit of a break. However, there are two points that JaclynGlenn makes that I would like to comment on.2

“…The Jesus story is hardly original, much of it copied from other, earlier myths. Hercules had a prophesied birth, a divine father and mortal mother, and at the end of his life uttered the words, ‘It is finished’ before ascending to Olympus. Osiris was born of a virgin, was hailed as king, rose from the grave and went to heaven. The early Romans had the pagan god Attis, born December 25th, crucified and rising again on a Sunday 200 years before the story of Christ. Dionysus, the Greek god and son of Zeus, was also born December 25th of a virgin mother, healed the sick, turned water to wine and was resurrected from death to save mankind. It’s also interesting to note at the December 25th Christmas holiday is actually based on the week-long Babylonian festival of Saturnalia (the festival of Saturn, the sun god, a pagan celebration).”

…Or so says the people over at The Thinking Atheist,1 a secular website (as well as a radio podcast and online community) hosted by former religious broadcaster Seth Andrews. Are they right? Are the stories of Jesus really no more than “plagiarized poppycock?”2

Hey guys! I know I’ve already posted a similar article listing my recommended resources on Christian apologetics, but today I wanted to offer another list that focuses specifically on historical apologetics. This way I can divide these up into different categories concerning that area without making things confusing (plus doing it this way is more enjoyable to me for some reason). For this post, I will only be listing books:

The Existence of Jesus and the “Copycat” Thesis

Shattering the Christ Myth: Did Jesus Not Exist? (2008), Edited by James Patrick Holding

Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazereth (2012), by Bart D. Ehrman*

Lately I’ve been looking at the works of historian Richard Carrier concerning the Historical Jesus (he attempts to argue that it’s highly unlikely that Jesus ever existed), especially his most recent work on the subject.* While doing so, I just so happened to come across some critiques made by two other apologists (that are almost definitely more qualified to speak on the topic than I am), and I would like to share them with you with the hope that you’ll find them to be beneficial.

Due to me neglecting to notice statements on the copyright pages of books, statements concerning quoting/reproducing any material from that book, I have decided to take down any and all posts that feature me quoting from such a work until further notice. On the downside, this is depressing and frustrating, since I put a good bit of work into the posts in question. However, on a positive note, this gives me the opportunity to start from scratch and avoid any mistakes that I have previously made. So stay tuned! The Amateur Apologist is not finished yet!

Hey guys! While I’m still busy working on my next piece in Christian apologetics, I figured I’d go ahead and list some of my most highly recommended resources for anyone interested in doing their own research. Enjoy!

NOTE: I realize that not every work listed here is written by a scholar in the relevant field(s). However, I’ve found that they still offer good material nonetheless (and they actually do their research).

BOOKS

General Apologetics and the Existence of God

On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision, by William Lane Craig

Hey guys, it’s been a while since I last posted, so here I am. I also wanted to announce that this site will no longer be aimed at simply atheistic arguments on the internet. It will also serve as a place for me to not only publish my own arguments for the existence of God, but also to write about anything else I feel like writing about. Also, as you can see, I never quite finished the critique of the blog mentioned in my last post. I’ve decided that instead of finishing that, I’m going to move on to writing about other things, since my heart isn’t really into doing the former.

I know this is my first post in about a month. The reasons why are mainly because of both the holidays and that I received a lot of Christian apologetics for Christmas that I’m still trying to read. And because I have so much to read (not to mention a number of questions that I need answers to), don’t be surprised if I publish my posts non-consistently.

Anyway, I came across this blog called “Why there is no god,” and it featured an article that really caught my attention. The article was called “Responses to common theist arguments.”

This week I figured I would respond to an article that talks about the supposed conflict between science and religion. It’s an article by “the Atheist,” called “Logically disproving the Christian God.” Let’s examine it:

“After the suggestion in one of this site’s comments stating that it required more faith to be an atheist than a theist, because the non-existence of a deity can never be proven, I thought it would be fun to see if we can logically disprove the existence of “God”. I picked the Christian God because I am more familiar with the Christian faith than any other, I’ve read the bible and have previously lived with devout Christians. I feel qualified. So let’s see where this goes…

I recently came across a blog post on a secular website called “Fight the faith,” and it was apparently a submission from an atheist that claimed to have logically disproven God’s existence. The title of the article that contained that submission was called, “Science can’t disprove God. But logic can,” and I thought that a response to this article would be a good topic for my first post.